Relieve Pain with these Simple to Do Ways
As we at Baywest Health & Rehab are open Mondays through Thursdays, sometimes your pain may come on over the weekend. While you won’t be able to come in and see us, there are many things you can do to help relieve the pain until Monday, when you can simply walk in and be examined and helped. Here, we are going to look at 5 great ways to help relieve pain at home without even the aid of medication.
Ice
Number one thing to do is to ice the area of pain. Use an ice pack and apply to your pain for no more than 20 minutes at a time. You can do this on and off throughout the day. But remember, no more than 20 minutes at a time.
Stretching
Secondly is to try and stretch the area of pain. If you are having neck pain, then a good way of doing this is to lay on your bed on your back and allow your neck to hang backward over the bed for several minutes. If it’s back pain, then laying on one of those foam rollers or an exercise ball can really help to stretch the back out. It works in a similar way to chiropractic in that your joints are being stretched out, decompressing them and allowing more freedom of movement.
Exercises and Yoga
Do you practice yoga at all? This is a superb way of relieving pain as it really stretches those joints out. Otherwise, simple stretching exercises really help as well.
BONUS TIP:
Cold Showers
Doesn’t sound much fun, does it? But studies have shown that a cold shower can really help with pain relief. Fret not, your shower doesn’t have to be totally cold. 30 seconds of cold shower is enough, any more than that and there are no additional benefits. So, have your shower as usual at your regular temperature, and then for the final 30 seconds of your shower, shut off the hot. Count to 30 and you’re done. Alternatively, soap up and then rinse off in the cold, at least you’re doing something to take your mind off the cold!
Try these things if you are in pain, but if you aren’t getting any better, come in and see us. We can examine you, find out what’s going on and then treat (or even refer out) at necessary.
If you are in a lot of pain and we are open, just come straight in so we can help right away and if it is after hours, we’d encourage you to go and see urgent care for help and then come and see us for follow up.